Category: It Happened to Me

It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

The Last of the Notes from the All-Candidates Meeting

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 22, 2006
No Comments on The Last of the Notes from the All-Candidates Meeting

And finally, the last of my notes from the January 11th all-candidates meeting for the Parkdale-High Park riding, complete with closing statements. If you’d like to see my other notes, follow the links below:

For all these notes, I’m wearing my “citizen journalist” hat. That means

that I have attempted, to the best of my ability, to provide an honest

account of what I saw and heard at the meeting. Any of my personal asides will appear in red italics.

Question 10: What are Your Energy Policies?

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party

Stop subsidizing oil and gas — more investing in solar and wind energy

Currently, we’re making substantial investments in non-renewable resources

Would advocate a slow phase-out from non-renewable energy — remember, many people make their livelihood off them

Look at alternative energy sources: wind, sun, ethanol

Alternative energy is a key part of the NDP plan

Rob Rischinsky, Green Party

End subsidies to all wasteful industry

Solving the energy problem also requires looking at the demand side of the equation

We feel that nuclear energy is a bad option — that’s what differentiates us from the NDP

Alternative energy sources can provide us with 10,000 Megawatts of power

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party

In our 2005 budget, we invested in co-generation, wind and biodiesel

Our energy efficiency and retrofit programs

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party

Stop subsidizing oil

Invest in wind power instead

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party

The Conservatives will establish a national standard where all fuel is at least 5% ethanol by 2010

That would cut greenhouse emissions by 4 million tons [or is it tonnes?] per year

Biodiesel is also another solution

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party

[incoherent mumbling]

Closing Statements

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party

Prohibition kills

We call for legalization

Legal marijuana will generate lots of tax revenues

Rob Rischinsky, Green Party

We advocate a new style of thinking

The “left/right” distinction in politics is from the past

Our system was created in the 19th century, run by 20th century parties trying to solve 21st-century problems

We run campaigns based on hope; we believe hope trumps fear

We are diverse people, moving into a post-national era

The Globe and Mail said that we were the party making positive statements

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party

In this meeting, there were no questions about the international situation

We would form an anti-war government

We are opposed to wars of aggression on sovereign states by the U.S.

We condemn the complicity of the Canadian government

Our reputation as peacekeepers is undeserved

Wars fought for “humanitarian interests” are a fraud

We are “junior partners” in the U.S. plan

Wars are fought for business

We would uphold the U.N. charter of non-interference

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party

In the last election, I finished a close second

This means that people want changes

The NDP will invest in:
- Seniors
- Education
- Public health care — and stop its privatization
- Environment
We will give you a clean government

I’ll consult with the riding regularly — “You won’t only see me at election time”
[Enthusiastic response from crowd]

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party

On January 24th, either Paul Martin or Stephen Harper will be prime minister

You can either have a fend-for-yourself system run by a man whom the lauded as “Pro-American”

Or we can strive together for a common goal

Canada is doing well: we don’t borrow, we are active in world social programs and we are a society where newcomers are welcome

What change do you want — a backwards fight where we rehash old debates, or moving forward and building

We are the party of “medicare to multiculturalism”

We are the party of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Jurij Klufas

Do you want more of the same, or do you want real change?

The Liberals brought you the sponsorship scandal

They have an entitlement mentality

We would bring in a Federal Accountability Act

We would cut the GST from 7% to 6%, and then to 5%

The Liberals believe that parents can’t be trusted on how best to spend money on their children — they say you’ll spend it on beer and popcorn

We would make sure the immigration policy was fair

The Liberals say they are the unity party but have no credibility in Quebec

Mention of their man in Quebec, Jean Charest

On guns:
- We will crack down on illegal guns
- We support mandatory sentences for serious gun crimes

It Happened to Me

Do You Know Anything About Roztez?

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 21, 2006
No Comments on Do You Know Anything About Roztez?

Hey, readers! I need your collective brainpower!

A reader writes:

I am trying to find out about the city of Roztez in the Czech Republic because I have been offered a job there. However, I cannot find any pictures or anything about the people, etc. Seeing your website, I thought you might be able to give me some insight.

I wrote back, saying:

Unfortunately, I know terribly little about Roztez. I stayed at the Zamek Roztez castle for New Years’ Eve and New Years’ Day 2000, and didn’t venture into town except to go to the train station to go to Prague. All I really know is that the train station is quaint, Kutna Hora and the church where everything is made of human bones is nearby and that Zamek Roztez is a great place to throw a big party.

If you like, I can pose your question on my blog — there’s a good chance that a reader or two may have more information than I.

If you know anything about Roztez, please leave a note in the comments!

It Happened to Me

I’m on Bicyclemark’s Podcast

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 20, 2006
1 Comment on I’m on Bicyclemark’s Podcast

Yesterday, I did a phone interview with Amsterdam-based Mark “Bicyclemark’s Comminque” Rendeiro in which he asked me questions about the Canadian election. It’s included in his most recent podcast. Here’s his description:

Canada’s biggest elections in a decade are days away. Many predict the

conservatives will take control and push a very American-Republican

type agenda. Others say it’s too close to call. I’m joined on this

program by one of Toronto’s most beloved bloggers the Accordion Guy – Joey Devilla, and then from Victoria, British Columbia, blogger and journalist Sean Holman of PublicEyeOnline.

There’s also some Canadian music in this podcast, namely:

Romantic Comedy by Stars
Poster of a Girl by Metric
Tom Sawyer by Rush

It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

The Balanced Meal

Regular readers of this blog will know that last night, a fundraiser for the MP in my riding, Sam Bulte, was held at the Drake Hotel, a boutique hotel that’s become one of the city’s more popular after-work and weekend hangouts. The fundraiser, billed as a celebration of artists and creators in honour of a friend to the creative community, was in fact more of a political strokefest between the Canadian Recording Industry Association and a politician who supported a bill that was very restrictive of user’s rights.

Ren Bucholz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation called together a counter-gathering at the same hotel, where those who opposed Big Content’s vision and Sam Bulte’s pandering could meet, get to know each other and talk. No recitations of manifestoes, no angry scribblings of blog entries or letters to the editors, but just folks with a common interest meeting over food and drink in one of my favourite cafes in town.

I had to get a photo of the sign in the lobby. It’s pretty poor (I didn’t want to call attention to myself while doing it), but as you can see, the event is a fundraiser, contrary to Ms. Bulte’s vehement denials:

A good number of people arrived early and the cafe was filled to capacity soon thereafter. We each took turns introducing ourselves and found that we were all sorts of different people, from techies like myself, Ian Goldberg and Kat Hanna (whom you may remember from their adventures with Dell Computer and click-wrap licencing), to musicians such as Neil Leyton and Mike Farrell of The Pariahs (a guy who predates me at Crazy Go Nuts University), photographers, writers, students and people who just classified themselves as “ordinary citizens”.

I have to commend The Drake for letting us gather there. Ren had communicated with them in advance to book some space in the Corner Cafe, and they could’ve easily said “no” for fear of offending the fundraiser folks, who’d be a far greater source of revenue than we. I also have to commend the Corner Cafe for making their own marshmallows for their hot chocolate — I’m going to be a return customer on that touch alone.

I got a chance to talk with Ren for a little bit, and he told me about the EFF’s presence in Canada. He’s the only EFF guy in this country, having started at the position about nine months ago. We talked about all sorts of things, from the blog-powered hubbub over Bulte to Copynight, a gathering that takes place on the fourth Tuesday of every month where people talk about restoring balance to copyright law. Ian and Kat also mentioned this and informed me that the next local gathering takes place next Tuesday night at 7 at The Madison, a place that I normally associate with drunken college reunions and think of as a safe training ground for bar pick-ups for people freshly out of school. It’s nice to see “The Maddy” broadening its client base!

It was also good to see Neil Leyton, whom I hadn’t had a chance to

catch up with since 2002, when he and I were musicians in Lindi’s live

band, with him on guitar and backup vocals and me on you-know-what.

Neil told me about how he used to stick a line on the copyright notices

for his albums where it would say something like “Hey, if you listened

to this album from start to finish non-stop with no bathroom breaks,

you are are entitled to copy and distribute it freely!” He then

discovered Creative Commons and found that their licenses said roughly

the same thing in a more official way, and now his record label, Fading

Ways Music, is a big user and supporter of Creative Commons licenses.

A funny note — the Drake had a contingent of security guards, sharply dressed in black suits with black turtlenecks, communicating with each other on walkie-talkie cellphones. One of them glared at me when I took the photo of the sign announcing the location of the fundraiser, but a hotel staffer who knew me told him “Oh, don’t worry, that’s the Accordion Guy. He’s cool.”

Later, as I left the cafe to use the bathroom, two of them blocked the door that led to the hallway leading to the fundraiser room.

“You using the bathroom?” one of them asked.

“Yup,” I replied.

“One from the cafe to use the bathroom,” said the other one into his walkie-talkie as I opened the bathroom door, shaking my head and smiling in amused disbelief.

In the News It Happened to Me

My Biggest Source of "Hits" Today…

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 18, 2006
2 Comments on My Biggest Source of "Hits" Today…

…is the Macleans piece, Wrath of the Bloggers, which features quotes from Cory Doctorow, Michael Geist and yours truly. Right now, 15% of this weblog’s incoming traffic is coming from there.

In the News It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Even More Questions from the All-Candidates Meeting

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 18, 2006
1 Comment on Even More Questions from the All-Candidates Meeting

That’s right, even more from my notes on last week’s all-candidates meeting. In case you missed them, here are my earlier entries on that meeting:

Question Seven: The Gun Crime Question

What are you going to do about gun crime?

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party

This is a question that I hear repeatedly, and there are no simple fixes for this problem

Nobody needs a gun

Many of the guns are coming from south of the border [remember, American readers, to us, “south of the border” means “America”]

The border is unpatrolled in many places and there isn’t enough staff to cover all of it

Gun crimes need to be treated with mandatory jail time

Also need to work on communities — “poverty by postal code”

Sam Bulte

Key gun crime laws died on the table because of the vote of non-confidence [which led to this election]

We need more police — both local and RCMP

We need to work with youth as well — there has to be some prevention — can’t just be “law and order”

We should ban guns

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party

We can’t resort to an “iron-fisted approach”

Society has to live up to its responsibilities, and individuals have to live up to their responsibilities

We have to balance going on the offensive with respecting people’s rights

“Arc of poverty” — one-quarter of the people in the city live below the poverty line

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party

This is possibly the most important issue

There’s a “big business” running the streets — the drug trade

The drug trade and guns are intertwined

Tougher laws and mandatory sentences for gun crimes

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party

mumble mumble mumble Legalization of marijuana will end organized crime mumble mumble

Rob Rischinsky, Green Party

We already have strong gun laws

The problem is with illegally-obtained guns

Let people who want to have gun collections keep them, but make it so the guns in those collections are non-functional

Gun sport enthusiasts can also keep their guns, but store them at the place where they are used [e.g. their shooting range]

We believe in restorative justice

Question 8: What will you do for seniors?

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party

Many of the programs in place for seniors were put there by the Liberals

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party

Here in Canada, we have the resources to provide for all

Unfortunately, providing for everyone’s needs is not a principle we follow

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party

We will give patient care gurantees

We want to expand the definiton of “caregiver” so that more people who take care of the elderly qualify for benefits

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party

We would like to commit $1 billion a year over the next four years to programs that would give more seniors the ability to stay in their own homes rather than go to old folks’ homes

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party

mumble mumble Revenues from marijuana mumble mumble mumble

Rob Rischinsky, Green Party

Some reasons that older people need help: pollution and our lifestyle

Wait till the boomers hit the system

We want to provide universal access to senior care

Question 9: The Environment

[My notes on the question are bunged up, but it’s a question about the environment.]

Rob Rischinsky, Green Party

We can have both economic prosperity and environmental health

Look at Sweden: since 1990, their GDP has gone up 54% while pollution has gone down 25%

Kyoto [the accord] is the first step

Note that there was no mention of the environment in the televised debates

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party

The NDP has made sure that money was given to the TTC and the energy retrofit program

We stand for:
- Clean air
- Clean water
- Making polluters pay
- National energy retrofit program
[The way we’ve implemented] Kyoto is a national shame

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party

mumble mumble hemp mumble mumble forests mumble mumble fuel

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party

The Kyoto Accord — led by the Liberal party

Funded Great Lakes cleanups, targeted Toronto

We have invested $5.1 billion in the environment

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party

The type of economy we live in will always clash with the environment

As long as the profit motive exists, that clash will always exist

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party

Kyoto is a disgrace

We’ve missed every deadline

Now we have to buy credits

We proposed tax credits for people who take public transit

We will invest in renewable fuels

In the News It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Question 10: What are Your Energy Policies?

Closing Statements

Question Seven: The Gun Crime Question

Question 8: What will you do for seniors?

Question 9: The Environment

Question 3: The “Psychotropic Drugs” Question

Question 4: Toronto the ATM

Question 5: One from the Kids

Question 6: Another from the Kids